As Tropical Storm Dorian transitions into a hurricane and tracks toward Florida, it’s worth noting that it used to be that the US only used female names for hurricanes. This changed in 1978, for obvious enough reasons, and both male and female names have been used in alternating fashion ever since.
However, it is now 2019 and many feel that these binary designations are insufficient, excluding those who don’t identify as either male or female. Further, the ethnic composition of the list of pre-selected names has been almost exclusively Anglo-Saxon, and so under pressure, the World Meteorological Organization has begun to diversify the pool from which they had been selecting Hurricane names.
Unfortunately, this has proven controversial, especially after Hurricane Abd al Qadir seriously damaged parts of the US east coast back in 2018. It quickly became apparent that diverse representation, at least when it came to destructive forces of nature, was not a great idea. Regardless of what was done, people were bound to feel insulted, either by inclusion or exclusion, and so naming rights are now being sold for all upcoming hurricanes. The funds used to purchase the rights to the hurricane will be used to reconstruct communities damaged by the storms, and for green initiatives. So far, the next dozen hurricanes have been purchased and branded, and here is the list:
1) Hurricane Trump!
2) Hurricane The Failing New York Times!
3) Hurricane The Fast and the Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, Opening Soon!
4) Hurricane Exxon, Security You Can Trust
5) Hurricane Vote For Joe Biden Despite the Gaffes
6) Hurricane of Apologies From the Canadian Government for our Many Failures
7) Hurricane Gaga
8) Hurricane The Super-Yacht Community Feels Your Pain
9) Hurricane Please Donate to Chron’s and Colitis: The pain is Real
10) Hurricane Pizza Hut Two for One Special!
11) Hurricane China National Petroleum Company Always A Good Neighbour
12) Hurricane China Loves to Help
